Henderson City High School existed from 1955 to 1976 in Henderson
County, Kentucky. It was the fourth and last building to serve as Henderson High School. The school was called "City High"
to distinguish it from Henderson County High School which had opened a year earlier. The original school was on the third
floor of the city school system's first school, Center Street School, from 1870 to 1888. The first graduating class was
the class of 1872. In 1888 a new high school was built at the corner of Washington and Adams Streets. This building served
as the high school until 1910 and later served as a junior high and then as Central Elementary School until 1975. The most
famous graduate from this school was Admiral Husband Kimmel, the commander at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, who was
the valedictorian of the class of 1899. From 1910 to 1955, the high school serving white students in the Henderson city
limits was Barret Manual Training High School. Though the school was named Barret in honor of James Barret, who donated property
for the school, all logos still used an "H" and it was considered to be a continuation of HHS. The 1916 B.M.T.H.S. basketball
team won the first state tournament at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. That first tournament was an invitational
and consisted of only eight schools. Barret is one of the few schools to win the Kentucky State Tournament with an undefeated
season. This tournament was two years before the formation of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association and is not shown
in the press guides. In 1927 the Henderson Gleaner and Journal held a contest to have a nickname for the athletic teams, which
had never had a mascot. The winner was Purple Flash, which was submitted by Sam Levy. In 1955 the new Henderson High School
was built to replace Barret, parts of which had been built as a mansion in 1860. The last location of Henderson City High
School was 800 South Alves Street. That location is now the Henderson South Middle School. The mascot was changed to Flash
at this time because the school colors were changed from purple and gold to red, white, and blue. Black students in the city
and county attended Douglass High School. In 1965 desegregation was completed in the city school system and Douglass was merged
into Henderson City High School. In 1970, Holy Name High School, a private Catholic high school, closed and the students transferred
to either the City or County high schools. Due to the city
school system being "landlocked" into the city limits which had existed years earlier, the tax base began to shrink as city
residents began to move to subdivisions on the edge of town. The Henderson City Board of Education petitioned the Henderson
County Board of education to merge. This took place in 1976 and the decision was made by the Henderson County Board of Education
to have only one high school with all grade 10 through 12 students attending Henderson Senior County High School. Henderson
City High School became the Henderson County Freshman Center for one year before becoming Henderson County South Middle School
in 1977 following the closure of Barret Junior High School.

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The following is taken from the 1955-56 City High yearbook, "The Revue".

BASKETBALL

Henderson City High's basketball team set quite a record this season by winning 29 games and only losing 3.
The Flash were defeated twice during season play, by the #1 team in the state, Berea, and by a well balanced Earlington club.
Before being defeated the team had won 13 straight games. They also swept through the tournament the as #2 team in the state
of Kentucky. Henderson High was the first team to place 3 men on the all-state team without being the state champions. Seniors;
Pascal Benson, Byron Pinson, and junior David Eakins made All-District, All-Regional and All-State.

Please note that all photographs were sent in by former
students of Henderson City High School. They have all been edited, corrected & cleaned up as well as they
possibly could. If you are displeased with a photo, simply scan the photo that you want replaced and I will be more than happy
to replace it.